You’ve likely read articles about how the ride-hailing sector is fraught with problems: drivers are unhappy with high commissions and low fares, and they protest. Eventually, ride-hailing apps make a small tweak here and there, and the drivers are happy again to have a source of income. It’s the same cycle every time.
Those are operational problems—it’s a classic excuse that exists in most multi-party businesses. It’s everywhere: food delivery, asset-light e-commerce, and other marketplace-type businesses. For gig driving, drivers want more ownership and say because they know they are central to ride-hailing companies’ operations. This fickleness—coupled with the opportunity to build an ecosystem around their app—is what drove the likes of Uber and Bolt to launch food and grocery delivery services, respectively.
However, when it comes to driver or passenger safety, excuses are thrown out the window. This is why Nigeria’s transport union, the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON), has threatened to boycott inDrive, the US-based ride-hailing app operating in Nigeria. The union said the platform lacked adequate security features to properly verify passengers or allow drivers to indicate when they felt endangered.
These attacks are not isolated to inDrive. The gig economy is a trust-based business model that somehow imploded. Between 2023 and 2024, there were reports of attacks on drivers and passengers. In June 2024, Bolt blocked over 6,000 drivers in South Africa for misconduct after two reported cases of drivers attacking passengers.
Despite its many flaws, the gig-driving business still seems viable with the huge ride numbers they handle daily. Yet, security is important. In 2023, Uber launched an in-app emergency button with audio recording features. For inDrive, verifying passengers, like drivers, could be a useful way to make them accountable. Otherwise, if this trend becomes a bigger threat, it could trigger mass customer exits.
